Gambo: Where is the passion D-backs fans?

It’s the fourth inning of the ball game and the Phillie fans in attendance at Chase field are having their voices be heard. Loud chants of “Let’s go Phillies” have erupted from different parts of the ballpark.

And before you know it Ryan Howard hits a two-run homer to put the defending World Series champs up 2-0.

I ask our ace reporter Craig Grialou, who is sitting next to me in the press box, if he ever remembers D-backs fans starting chants on their own? Unfortunately his response is what I already know, that the fans don’t chant unless they are told too by a scoreboard or if its a ninth-inning rally. I’m not sure how long it will take, if ever, to get the fans to be passionate about baseball here the way they are in New York, Boston, Philly, Chicago, St. Louis and some other cities.

Maybe it’s those cities history and tradition and the sport being passed on from generation to generation that has baseball entwined in peoples lives. I know that baseball in those cities is a religion. That whether your team wins or loses affects your daily routine. That it’s hard to sleep on the night your team loses a hearbreaker.

Maybe the D-backs made the mistake early of having ushers tell those fans that wanted to be loud and to stand up and cheer on their team to sit down and shut up.

Maybe with so many people in Arizona from somewhere else we are still a generation away from having more passionate fans — fans who grew up with the D-backs not the Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Dodgers, Giants etc.

Maybe we are just more laid back on the West Coast. Whatever it is I do hope that some day it changes. Because there is nothing like going to a game and cheering for your team instead of just watching them.

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